A combined RF/optical transmission system, for example an entire cable network, can be exceptionally complex. This complexity arises because the infrastructure was not initially built for interactive services. Originally, conventional combined RF/optical transmission systems were designed for television broadcast, which involves transmitting data in one direction (e.g., from a head-end transceiver to a cable television receiver in a user's home). Recently, the plant which was originally made for broadcast applications is becoming more and more interactive (e.g., transmitting data on a reverse channel from a transceiver in a user's home back to the head-end transceiver). Such reverse channel service allows for high speed internet access on cable, Voice over IP, and other interactive data services on cable over the cable network. However, because of the introduction of interactive services utilizing a reverse channel, the system has become exceptionally complex and difficult to maintain, in particular the interactive portion of the cable plant (e.g., the reverse channel portions of the network).
Further, because of the introduction of more and more services over the networks, the plant is continually evolving, making the plant difficult to use, service and maintain. Unlike a phone company, where a standard architecture has existed for 50 years or more and service and maintenance techniques are well-known, significant difficulty exists in configuring, servicing, and maintaining these combined RF/optical systems. For example, a cable system may have in excess of 2000 nodes, each requiring configuration and alignment. In order to diagnose a problem in each node, a field visit is typically needed requiring a physical visit by a technician to diagnose and fix any problems in the network. Such a process can be very expensive since physically accessing a node can be both time consuming and prohibitive depending on the physical location of the node. Compounding the problem is the difficulty identifying which nodes required field maintenance without actually going into the field.
Further, a common error requiring correction in a node is an adjustment of the output power of the laser associated with that node. In conventional systems, a transmitter in the node would be completely replaced with new hardware, either in the RF section or in the laser transmission section of the node, thus requiring an interruption in service to replace the hardware components.